Police investigating the death of Shiv Sangram Party leader Vinayak Mete in a road accident on Sunday prima facie concluded the driver of his car lost control of the vehicle which hit a truck from behind on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway.

The accident occurred at 5.05 am near Madap tunnel under the jurisdiction of Rasayani police station in the neighbouring Raigad district when Mete was coming to Mumbai from Beed, officials had said.

Mete's SUV was in a second lane of the six-lane expressway at the time of the accident, an official said.

As per the preliminary investigation, the car driver, Eknath Kadam, lost his control at wheel and the vehicle hit a truck from behind in which Mete was seriously injured, he said.

A doctor who checked on Mete at the MGM Hospital near Panvel told reporters earlier in the day that Mete had died before he was brought to the hospital.

"He was brought in at 6.20 am. He had no pulse or blood pressure, and his pupils were not moving. He died before being brought to the hospital. We even performed an ECG (electrocardiogram), but it showed a flat line (indicating no heart movement), the doctor said.

Kadam suffered minor injuries in the incident while Mete's police bodyguard was seriously injured.

The police official said that rescuers had to cut open a part of the SUV to pull out the policeman.

The crashed car Twitter/@ss_suryawanshi

In his statement to police, Kadam claimed he did not receive any help for almost an hour after the accident and vehicles plying on the expressway didn't stop.

The highway police, however, denied the claim of the driver. They said police reached the spot within seven minutes after receiving information about the accident.

"The state Highway Police stated in a report that they received a call about an accident at 5.58 am, following which police personnel from the Palaspe outpost rushed to the spot at 6.05 am," the official said.

The claim of the driver is being verified and the investigation is on, he added.

Mete, 52, a former member of the Maharashtra Legislative Council, hailed from the Beed district in the Marathwada region.

He is survived by his wife, a son and a daughter.